Innehållsförteckning för August 2021 från TechLife

Back in February 2021 rumours surfaced that Facebook was working on its own health-tracking smartwatch. More rumors have surfaced about this Zuckerberg watch, but far from a fitness tracker, they suggest it’ll function more like an action cam. According to The Verge, which apparently spoke to people involved in the Facebook smartwatch project, the wearable will have a screen that can be removed from the strap. This display will have a front-facing camera so you can take selfies whenever you want, as well as a rear, higher-resolution one, that’s iPhone 13 could have improved cameras and Face ID Fire up the Dino widget. A lot of components go into building an iPhone, and one of those components is a voice coil motor (VCM), something which this year Apple is reportedly…

$1,099, www.samsung.com The Samsung Odyssey G7 looks like it could be a dream display for gamers looking to avoid any FOMO given that for most folk hunting for the best gaming monitor, the market is split into two distinct areas that depend mostly on what genres you play and how you want to optimise your experience. If you want a high refresh rate for buttery-smooth graphics or to give you an edge in competitive titles like Apex Legends and Call Of Duty: Warzone then you’re usually limited to a 1080p resolution. On the flip side, anyone wanting to enjoy crazy 4K graphics on games like Red Dead Redemption 2 will have to reel in that refresh rate to something around the 60Hz mark. A comfortable middle has been found on…

What should I wear when working from home? Torsten Marklund Today’s work hours outfits are very much the mullets of clothing: business on the top, party on the bottom. Your presentable areas exude an air of professionalism while the bit below is basically a bomb site. " If over-smart Zoom calls are the order of the day The Monthly Tie Club will send you up to four silk ties every month. If you must work in your pants, at least make them good pants; Guru’s partial to the sack-swaddlers from pantsandsocks.com, which you can buy one-off or subscribe to if you have a sandpapery behind. They’re reasonably priced and come from decent grundlebrands – the company does advise that they can be passed off as running shorts should you accidentally…

The Oregon Trail CATCH DYSENTERY IN 2021. Apple Arcade (Subscription) The Oregon Trail, a callback to the early, heady days of the Apple 2 – one of the staples of early 90s personal computing – is not only one of the best mobile games I’ve played in a long time but an exceptional example of how subscription services on mobile allow for truly great titles designed for purpose. In the original, players were tasked with guiding a group of pioneers across the American west, braving desert, mountains, harsh winters and plenty of disease. Along the way they would be faced with finding food, fixing their trusty wagon, and keeping both health and spirits up before they reached their ultimate destination – the state of Oregon. The remake keeps entirely in…

Battlefield 2042 is the next generation of multiplayer shooters. The series has endured a cycle of creative stagnation and emerged with a truly mesmerising proposition: 128 players, free to run amok on the frontlines of the largest and most diverse sandboxes that developer DICE has ever constructed. Designed to be disruptive, tempered by cutting-edge technology, and engineered as a platform for future evolution, Battlefield 2042 is here to prove that there’s still scope for shooters to chart a path beyond battle royale to more exciting and electrifying horizons. A newfound focus DICE was hesitant to show too much of the game at this early stage, but we’re already starting to piece it together. The inscrutable balance of Battlefield 2 and the unconstrained carnage of Bad Company 2. The way Battlefield…

$29.95, PlayStation, Xbox One, PC, Switch, www.ea.com Knockout City is a game about gangs of young folks who settle their differences by beaning each other with dodgeballs. The overall vibe is like if The Warriors and Splatoon loaded into their hover cars then had a big rumble in the parking lot of a ‘50s-themed diner. The electro-swing, big beat soundtrack is an instant bop, and I loved the unique aesthetic of the cosmetic options, with pompadours and poodle skirts well represented alongside futuristic visors and gold studded jackets. You can keep three “Brawlers” ready to go at any time, each with their own customised cosmetic loadouts, which will be especially clutch for the dodgeball fashionistas out there. The highest compliment I can pay to Knockout City is that I never…

$499, www.espresso.so With its brushed aluminum design, gunmetal color, seamless flow between bezel and panel, flushed connectors and a deliberately minimalist approach to features, this monitor from Espresso Display stands out; in a good way. This slab of metal and glass – complete with sharp edges – is unlike any monitor we’ve seen and has already been touted as the thinnest portable monitor available. The Australian startup behind the product raised more than US$633,000 on Indiegogo to make this. Design Aside from the aluminum and glass unibody case, Espresso happily borrows from the classic “Book of Apple” by espousing the design philosophy of the company behind icons such as the MacBook Pro or the iMac. It is actually another Apple device that seems to be the inspiration for the Espresso.…

$599, www.dyson.com.au The Dyson Omni-glide certainly looks different to other cordless vacuums from the brand. Rather than a traditional trigger-style handle, the Dyson Omni-glide has a vertical handle, which houses the swappable battery, with a power button on the front, along with another button to switch to maximum power. The motor, which generates the suction, and the eight cyclones, which generate 98,000g of centrifugal force to ensure that microscopic dust particles remain in the canister, sit below this, followed by the 0.02-liter dust bin. As we’ve already mentioned, the Dyson Omni-glide is designed for hard floors, and it ships with just one cleaning head, which has two brush bars. These are covered in soft nylon to capture large particles without damaging hard floors, while anti-static carbon fiber filaments collect fine…

$1,149, www.epson.com.au The early EcoTank printers looked like regular cartridge-based inkjets with bulbous ink reservoirs bolted onto the side. But this sleek design has the six tanks seamlessly integrated into the design. As a result, the footprint of the Epson EcoTank ET-8550 is roughly A3 in size while standing only 16cm tall, so it’s much easier to accommodate than most A3 printers. There are two paper trays at the front, but neither are big enough for A3 paper. A third paper tray at the rear will take anything up to A3+ paper. It’s actually quite a neat solution because this rear tray provides a much flatter paper path which means your A3 photos won’t curl up. It also means you can print on some quite thick card. Though it looks…

$84, www.tapo.com/au Tapo is an off-shoot brand of TP-Link. Its corporate mantra is, “Smart, Easy, Secure.” The C310 is it’s new weatherproof security camera that’s designated for home use. Consequently, instead of being part of a hard-wired network of centrally-monitored cameras, it’s optimised to be added to a domestic Wi-Fi network and operated via an app. Set-up is very simple: you just turn on the power, download the app, follow the on-screen guide that finds, identifies and adds your camera to the network (either directly by Wi-Fi or via an optional Ethernet cable) and a few minutes later, you’re looking at an image on your phone. The C310 comes attached to a multi-directional mounting plate that needs screwing into a wall. This will instantly cause issues for Australians who rent.…

Control Center is new in Big Sur and works similarly to iOS. It groups together settings like display and keyboard brightness, volume, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. (You can still choose to have some of those settings in the menu bar.) Notification Center now combines notifications and the widgets that previously appeared in the Today tab. Widgets are grouped by app and nested. So if, for example, you have multiple Calendar notifications, you’ll see a stack. Click on it and all the notifications will be displayed. Notifications are now more interactive, so you can accomplish some tasks without opening the application. And you can add and remove widgets from third-party apps. Click on Notification Center, scroll to the bottom, and choose Edit Widgets. Click the “-” in the corner of any widget…

1 CREATE THE ALBUM In the sidebar in Photos, hover over Shared Albums and click the “+” next to it. Give the album a title and type the names – if they are in your Contacts – or email addresses of people you want to share with. Click Create. 2 INVITE MORE PEOPLE To invite more people after creating an album, choose the album under Shared Albums and click the People icon in the toolbar. Click “+” next to Invite People and type the name or email address of the people you want to invite. 3 SHARED ALBUM WEB PAGE VIf you want to share an album with people not on iCloud, create a web page. Click the people tab in the album view and choose Public Website. This creates…

If you have more than one Mac or iOS device, you can use a service called Content Caching to reduce the amount of data you download over the internet and speed up OS updates and the retrieval of other data. With Content Caching set up, whenever a Mac or iOS device on the network downloads an update, the update is stored on a Mac on the network. The next time a device requests the update, it’s delivered from the cache, rather than being downloaded again. And it’s not just OS updates. Content Caching supports apps, app data such as GarageBand songs, Books, and iCloud data like photos and documents. To switch it on, go to System Prefs > Sharing, and check the box next to Content Caching. You can choose…

Getting smart about getting fit is all about doing the right things at the right time. Even if you’re free of specific movement restrictions and curfews, the way we go about our daily business likely isn’t changing for a while. So now would appear to be the perfect time to put that expensive gym membership on hold and dial up your activity in and around your home. There are a host of devices and apps that'll get you moving, with more released in the past year than ever before, but let’s start with those that try to bring that authentic gym experience into your home. Subscriptions are a big thing now, and they’re only getting bigger. Apple, of course, has its own: Apple Fitness+ ($14.99 per month) fired out of…

Frame stutter problem I’m experiencing an intermittent frame stutter issue in games as varied as World of Warships and Ghost Recon Breakpoint. It’s not tied to graphics quality settings, as I’ve tried everything from maxed out to turning them down to mud, and still have the issue. I’ve tried killing all background apps/ processes, I update regularly, whether BIOS, drivers, or firmware. I’ve tried stock voltages, PBO enabled, Ryzen Master OC, and so on but can’t resolve it. I built my PC in November 2019 – key specs are Gigabyte Aorus Ultra X570 MB, AMD Ryzen 3800X CPU, 32GB (4x 8GB) DDR 3600 RAM with XMP enabled, plenty of cooling, 2TB Seagate Firecuda PCIe 4.0 OS drive, 1TB Samsung 970 Evo PCIe 3.0 auxiliary drive, 2x 3TB Seagate mechanical drives…

As our own government doubles down on spying on its citizens and criminals get better at intercepting our communications, you may be thinking it’s a good time to use a VPN for pretty much everything. It’s not a bad idea, and it’s entirely possible to set your router up to connect to the VPN so that every device in your home that connects through that router is effectively using the VPN. That includes your PCs, your mobiles, even your game consoles and smart TVs. Not every router model from every vendor supports this, however. Especially if you have an older router, or are still on ADSL and haven’t been moved to the NBN yet, it may not support it. Most current models of router, though, do have the ability to…

The Magic Wand is one of Photoshop’s best selection tools, especially if you need to target an area of an image that is uniform in colour or tone, like the backdrop to the bonsai tree image here. The tool works by seeking out similar pixels to the point that you click on, so it can be a huge help while you’re creating a fantastical composite like this, or for any time when you need to quickly lock on to part of an image. Making a successful selection in Photoshop is often mostly about choosing the right tool for the job. There are lots of great tools to choose from: the Quick Selection tool, the automated Object Selection tool, the spookily brilliant Select Subject command. The latter two employ fancy new…

The Sony Airpeak S1 drone has just officially taken off in a full launch – and it’s promising to be a DJIbeating aerial tool for pro filmmakers. Sony has been teasing the Airpeak, its first drone, since the project was first announced in November 2020, but it’s now released the full specs and price tag of its Alpha-friendly flying machine. Sony says the Airpeak S1 will be a three-part filmmaking system, consisting of the drone, the Airpeak Flight app (which is, curiously, iOS-only) and the Airpeak Plus cloud service. Of course, the drone itself is the most interesting of these, and the Airpeak S1 has some very impressive specs. Sony says the Airpeak S1 will be able to zip from 0-80kph in just 3.5 seconds, which is 1.5 seconds faster…

An ancient necropolis with 40 tombs, including cylindrical jars filled with human remains, has been discovered on the French island of Corsica. The people buried in the cemetery range from infants to adults, archaeologists said. Located in the town of L’Île-Rousse on the island’s northern coast, the cemetery seems to have been used between the third and fifth centuries CE, a time in which the Roman Empire was gradually declining. Many of the deceased were found buried inside amphoras, large vessels that would normally be used to carry goods such as olive oil, wine, or pickles. The design of the amphoras indicates that they are from North Africa, with some possibly being manufactured in Carthage. Even so, the people buried in the necropolis, including those inside the amphoras, likely lived…

Two stars, bound together in orbital matrimony, are slowly ripping each other apart, and like many relationship squabbles, this stellar spat ends with jewellery. Meet the Necklace Nebula, also known as PN G054.203.4. This planetary nebula is located about 15,000 light years from Earth, inside the Sagitta constellation. To telescopes like Hubble, the nebula looks like an emerald oval ringed with sparkling clusters of jewel-like gas. A binary star forms a bright speck at the centre. That speck looks like a single star, but it’s no bachelor; about 10,000 years ago, the star grew so large that its outermost layer of gas actually swallowed up a smaller companion star. That smaller companion star is still orbiting inside its larger partner’s gassy sheath, known as a common envelope. As the smaller…

$399, www.rode.com Rode’s first Wireless Go product was a game-changer in the industry – an ultra compact and foolproof wireless transmitter and receiver with an integrated microphone, all for an affordable price. Rode’s next-in-line (the aptly titled Wireless Go II) improves on just about every area, taking its place alongside its sibling as a highly recommendable tool for video and audio content creators everywhere. Design and updates As we’ve mentioned, much of the design finesse that made the original Wireless Go groundbreaking has returned with the Go II, but the updates that have made their way into this release have done wonders to improve overall quality of life. The units themselves are really small for what they promise, with each measuring around 44 x 45 x 18mm and weighing only…

Gaming hardware company Razer has partnered with Clearbot to help clean the Earth’s oceans. Dedicated to helping provide a greener, more sustainable future, Razer has now announced a partnership with Clearbot. Last month was World Oceans Day and to celebrate, Razer announced that it has been working with Clearbot to redesign their AI robot built to clean up marine plastics. Razer says that its engineers and designers have “volunteered personal time and technical expertise” to help turn Clearbot’s prototype into a mass-marketable product. The new design has “cutting-edge AI” and can detect marine plastics within two meters in rough waters. It’s also capable of collecting up to 250kg of plastics in one cycle and runs on solar-powered energy to do so. The company details that there are “approximately 11 million…

The character creation and story beats are just the beginning though, as this game continues to feel at odds with itself. $99, PlayStation, Xbox, PC, www.biomutant.com Biomutant is set against a backdrop of a post-apocalypse world, where humanity has been wiped out by pollution, corporate greed, and nuclear power exploration. The world left behind is dominated by the titular Biomutants – strange animal hybrids that are part cat, part rabbit, and 100% capable of wielding weaponry. These creatures have formed six tribes, who’ll you need to either unite or destroy to bring harmony to the land, which is also plagued by four world eaters – known as Puffs, for some reason. These huge beasts have been attacking the world tree (the last bastion of life on earth), and it’s up…

Metallica never scored a Legend of Zelda game, but it sounded like it when Twitch replaced Metallica’s BlizzCon 2021 concert with cheery midi music. The biggest streaming platform in the world had to censor its own broadcast or risk upsetting an already aggravated music industry. In 2020 the music industry attacked Twitch in a letter claiming it “continues to turn a blind eye to the same users violating the law while pocketing the proceeds of massive unlicensed uses of recorded music”. After largely ignoring Twitch for years, the music industry started sending thousands of DMCA takedowns for copyright violations. So Twitch reacted – dramatically. In October, it forced streamers to delete thousands of old VODs, with no good tools to determine which files were problematic. The music industry is upset…

$749, www.samsung.com The Samsung Galaxy A52 5G is the company’s latest entry in the cheaper phone market, and the company has made steps to make this handset its best yet for an affordable price. The A52 5G isn’t the lowest price smartphone you’ve ever seen, but it’s certainly much cheaper than the company’s flagship offerings like the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Ultra. That means the Galaxy A52 5G won’t be able to compete with the absolute best phones, but it also isn’t trying to do that. What Samsung is trying to do is make a conscious effort to bring features such as a high-refresh rate screen and improved rear camera to its cheaper A series. Design The Galaxy A52 5G is designed to have a solid build without the…

$6,999, www.hisense.com.au In recent years Hisense has fancied itself as a premium brand without really producing premium products. Here’s its first 8K TV – how will this 75-inch beast fare? In our 4K, 60fps, Costa Rica, nature-showreel test, we were a little disappointed to see occasional juddering in some horizontal and vertical panning shots. However, fast-moving animals rendered smoothly. Colours were impressive when we turned on the Dynamic picture mode but were rather muted in Standard and Natural modes. Artefacts in uniform areas of colour were minimal as was banding in colour gradients. One of our contrast tests involve watching scenes from The Darkest Hour. This showed us that details (impressively) only disappeared in the darkest of shadows. While there were some bands in monochromatic colour gradients this, again, was…

$279, www.jbl.com JBL has a long history of making great Bluetooth speakers and the Charge line has always stood out for its value. Historically, the Charge series offered incredibly impressive sound for its size. Battery life has always been impressive, allowing users to use their Charge speakers as a battery bank in a pinch. The design of the JBL Charge 5 is an iteration of the cylindrical design it has had for years. The biggest visual change is the large JBL logo on the front of the speaker. On the front, the individual power LEDs have moved from the bottom base to an LED strip under the JBL logo, which looks sleeker. Physical controls remain the same with slightly raised buttons on top of the speaker. There are buttons to…

$99, www.fitbit.com Before you invest in the Fitbit Aria Air, you should know that unlike other Fitbit smart scales, it doesn’t use a small electrical current to estimate your body composition (including fat, muscle and bone mass) – a method known as bioimpedence. This means you’ll get a less complete picture of changes to your body, but means it’s safe for people with implanted devices such as pacemakers. We were surprised how heavy the Fitbit Aria Air was. It weighs 3.9lb (1.7kg), which isn’t much less than Wi-Fi scales like the Garmin Index S2, and much less than the Eufy Smart Scale C1 Bluetooth scale. Fitbit advises always storing the scale upright, so you’re unlikely to be moving it often, but it’s something to bear in mind if space in…

From $11.99/month, music.apple.com Launched in 2015, Apple Music primarily focuses on the music you can stream. However, you can also add music you may have ripped from a CD or bought via iTunes, and watch videos. Apple wants Apple Music to be more a “cultural platform” than a music streaming service. The last time the company revealed official details about the total number of Apple Music subscribers was way back in 2019, when it hit 60 million. By June 2020, that figure was estimated to be 72 million. However, as of March 2021, Spotify has 158 million subscribers, which is a significant difference. But Apple Music doesn’t necessarily need to try to get more subscribers than Spotify; it already has dedicated fans. All music streaming services are upping their game…

There aren’t any new system–wide keyboard shortcuts or gestures in Big Sur, but the Reminders app gets a few new ones. There are now keyboard shortcuts for switching between lists and for changing due dates to, say, today, tomorrow, or next weekend. To configure system–wide shortcuts, go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts. Check or uncheck the box next to a shortcut to switch it on or off. Click on the shortcut itself to edit it. To manage gestures, use the Trackpad or Keyboard pane in System Preferences, depending on which you use with your Mac. Check and uncheck gestures and use drop–down menus to select how they are performed.…

Extensions in Photos allows you to access many of the editing features in apps such as Pixelmator, Affinity Photo, and Luminar without leaving the Photos app. There’s even a category on the App Store that lists the apps that have Photos extensions. To see that, double-click any photo then choose Edit from the top–right corner of the window. Click on the More button (…) and choose App Store. In that menu you’ll also see an option called Manage. Click that and you’ll be taken to the Extensions pane in System Preferences, from where you can enable extensions for those apps that support them. Once enabled, the apps appear in the Edit menu. Some apps have only one option, others have several. The difference is that, say, Pixelmator offers one option…

1 FIND A GIF TO SEND Click the new message button or click on a message thread in the sidebar. Type your message in the box, then click the “A” to display the options. Choose “#images.” Scroll through the GIFs to find the one you want. 2 GIF WITH A MESSAGE You can also use the search box to find images. When you’ve found the one you want, click on it to add it to your message. Press send to send the message, or press the “X” in the corner of the GIF to remove it. 3 IMAGE WITH EFFECTS Effects play an animation over the whole screen of an iOS device or window in macOS. Create a new message and this time, when you press “A,” choose Message Effects.…

The biggest change to Siri in Big Sur is that it can now answer a wider range of questions by searching the web. In addition, Siri in Big Sur can tell you about your Mac’s system, so you can ask “How fast is this Mac?” It can also search for files and you can ask follow-up questions. Siri can also make suggestions to you based on how you use your Mac, such as prompt you to create a calendar event for something you discuss in Messages. Siri can also change system settings, such as turning Wi-Fi on and off, or switching on Do Not Disturb. You can search within apps, say for notes or photos, and you can launch apps using Siri, too. Additionally, instead of speaking to your Mac…

1 TechnoGym Recline Forma US$4,310, technogym.com A sturdy gym-quality reclining bike suitable for your home, fully adjustable to suit your height. You get on-bike heart rate monitoring and an “entertainment support” for your iPad. 2 Wattbike Atom $3,499, wattbike.com/au The Wattbike Atom uses electromagnetic resistance to give you a seamless riding experience when you pair it with apps like Zwift or Wattbike’s own Hub. Fancy a hill climb? You’re on! 3 Schwinn Airdyne AD8 Around $1,999, schwinnfitness.com Space-saving design, upper- and lower-body workouts, and infinite resistance make Schwinn’s clever bike a true workout master. Be warned: it’s intense.…

For an immersive training experience, virtual reality is the way to go. We’d recommend the self-contained wire-free experience of the Oculus Quest 2 (from $479), which has a bunch of games that’ll get you sweating while you’re having fun. Your day-one purchase should probably be Beat Saber, one of the best rhythm games ever made, with a wildly varying level of challenge to it. We’d also recommend boxing sim Thrill Of The Fight (provided you have the room to move around). Going three rounds with its AI opponents will have you dodging and swinging through a surprisingly tough workout. If you really catch the VR bug, there are specific workout apps to scratch your itch. FitXR (formerly BoxXR) is well–presented with a wide range of activities, while OhShape will have…

Leave those thick laptops in the noughties where they belong. Whereas massive, bulky laptops take up space and burden you with a heavy load when you’re commuting to work or sitting at your small desk at home, these ultrabook-style laptops have a smaller footprint. They are the very definition of portability. That’s while keeping things powerful and feature-rich to see you through an entire workday with a flourish. They cost more than the average laptop, but they’re worth the investment in the long run. These four lead the ultra-portable charge and are your best bets if you want to jump on the lightweight bandwagon. SURPRISE CONTENDER APPLE MACBOOK AIR M1 No one could have predicted that Apple’s lightest and cheapest would one day join the ranks of its Pro counterparts,…

In earlier versions of Windows, the Control Panel was where you turned to change all manner of settings relating to hardware and the operating system itself. With Windows 10, however, Microsoft has replaced this – largely – with Settings. We say ‘largely’ because although Settings enables you to access the vast majority of Windows’ options, there are still some that are locked away in the Control Panel. With this in mind, it is all the stranger that Microsoft has made it increasingly difficult to access the Control Pane. As Windows 10 has been updated, this handy little tool which makes it possible to change all manner of settings relating to your computer has gradually faded into the background. But it is still there, and it is still immensely useful –…

JARGON BUSTER  Mac Catalyst is Apple’s tool for porting iPad apps to the Mac. Many of Apple’s own apps use it, making them more consistent across different platforms. GENIUS TIP Lots of iOS games work well when played on the Mac. That said, don’t forget to check if yours rely on your device’s gyroscope for controls! REQUIRES An M1 Mac running macOS 11 or later, an iOS device YOU WILL LEARN How to download and install iOS apps on macOS IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes When Apple announced its Macs were transitioning from Intel processors to its own M1 chips, one of the touted benefits was being able to run iOS apps natively on your Mac. And the really good news is that this is extremely easy to do, which…

$TBC, www.asus.com The best gaming laptops, for years, have been dominated by Intel and Nvidia hardware, something that only really started to change in 2020 when AMD launched its Ryzen 4000 laptop processors. The Asus ROG Strix G15 is the next step in that direction, launching with not only Ryzen 5000 series processors, but paired with the latest high-end Radeon graphics announced at Computex 2021. So, admittedly, there’s a lot riding on this gaming laptop, as it is going so against the grain of the hardware we typically see in devices like this, especially in its price range. We’re not sure yet exactly how much the Asus ROG Strix G15 is going to cost when it hits the streets, but we have been told that it will cost around $2,130.…

Planarians are a type of flatworm, soft-bodied creatures that lack complex organs. They have two eyes that connect to a centralised bundle of ganglia in their heads that acts as a brain, and those eyes are sensitive to ultraviolet (UV) light. In the presence of UV light, the worms use their cilia, tiny hairlike structures on their bodies, to wriggle away. However, it turns out the worms, measuring just a few millimetres long, don’t need their eyes or their brains for light detection. When researchers lopped off planarians’ heads, the worms were still capable of sensing UV light. Removing an animal’s head might seem like an odd way to conduct behaviour experiments. But planarians are known for not only surviving decapitation, but also for easily regenerating missing body parts. Amputation…

From $249, www.apple.com/au It’s taken four years for Apple to revamp its streaming box, and you’d be forgiven for initially being underwhelmed – the Apple TV 4K (2021) looks identical to its predecessor, the Apple TV 4K (2017) and the tweaks and improvements it offers over its the previous iteration are, on the face of it, small. However, the interface is incredibly slick, and it brings more than just TV streaming to the table. Design The latest Apple TV 4K certainly isn’t the most compact TV streaming device on the market, but it’s not the bulkiest either – measuring 9.8 x 8.8 x 3.5cm (w x d x h) it can slot easily into your existing home cinema setup. It has a matt black top with a discreet Apple TV…

While there’s undoubtedly been bad actors and unintended consequences amongst emerging technologies over the last few years, for the most part AI has been a force for good thus far. Unfortunately, this month, it’s increasingly looking like we’ve already reached the watershed point for AI’s net positive contribution to mankind. In addition to Russia announcing its intent to build fully-autonomous military assault vehicles and weaponised robots capable of taking human life, it seems the first deadly AI drones have already been deployed in conflicts in Libya in 2020. Hey, at least we’ll be able to hide in the virtual world using tech like the Omni One VR Treadmill and the reality might not seem so bad after watching the Dan Carlin narrated War Remains WWI VR experience. XR Omni One…

$89.95, PlayStation, Xbox, PC, www.ea.com The Mass Effect trilogy is to modern video games what its mass relays are to humanity. In the series’ lore, tens of thousands of years ago an advanced alien race scattered mass relays around the Milky Way, which acted as bread crumbs leading humans to the galaxy’s furthest stars. In 2007, Mass Effect was dropped into the cultural conversation by BioWare, and along with its successors, acted as a beacon for nearly every modern blockbuster game made in its impressive wake. Consider the cavernous gap that spans the original trilogy and its re-release: there’s a console generation and a half lying between the last game in the series and Mass Effect Legendary Edition (Mass Effect 3 originally released for Xbox 360 and PS3). Mass Effect…

$1,299, www.vive.com/au Looking for a high-spec VR headset? The HTC Vive Pro 2 will whisk you off to super-hi-res virtual reality worlds with its 5K display, which is simply the best VR screen available to the average person today. But that incredible screen is paired with some other hardware elements that need to be considered caveats to the otherwise premium experience. The original HTC Vive put at-home virtual reality on the map, with its spot-on tracking and high resolution screen. The competition has heated up since its 2016 debut, with the Oculus Quest 2 and Valve Index impressing VR gamers. But with the HTC Vive Pro 2, HTC is ready to re-stake its claim as the premium VR headset manufacturer to beat when it comes to PC virtual reality. And,…

$13,999, www.samsung.com/au Samsung TVs are often notable for their high brightness, poor-contrast, packed-in features and, for the top models, high prices. Now, here’s its new 85-inch, 8K flagship model, sporting a brand new, Neo QLED picture technology that supposedly rivals the all-conquering quality of OLED. Will it break the mould? Neo QLED replaces the traditional arrays of button-sized LED backlights with strips of tiny LEDs that measure in the thousands per square inch. The result is a brighter, thinner LCD panel that should offer superb contrast with more precise dimming. In a well-lit room, performance is impressive with colourful images being displayed with high contrast. However, watching in a dark room demonstrates that this first generation of the technology is not (yet) perfect. Despite the tiny size of the LEDs,…

$819, www.anycubic.com Compare prints from an FFF (fused filament fabrication) and a SLA (Stereolithography) 3D printer and you’ll instantly see why model makers, jewelry designers, engineers and even dentists look to SLA as their printer technology of choice. There’s no doubt that the SLA technology enables prints that are a level up from what is achievable by a standard FFF printer, but that quality comes at a cost. Both the LCD-based SLA printer and the wash and cure machine follow the same design style, making them a perfectly matched pair. Setting up both on the work surface and it has to be said that they look great with the bright yellow protective shield and only the simple touch screen LCD on one and dial on the front differentiating the look…

$TBC, salomon.com.au Huge kudos to Salomon for the Index.01. It’s one of the first companies to make a truly recyclable performance shoe and, despite the technical challenges involved, the end result is a bona fide running shoe. Articulating the myriad components in a trainer isn’t normally easy. However, with the Index.01, this isn’t a problem, because in order to be totally recyclable, simplicity is key. In earlier prototypes, Salomon tried making a shoe that was made of just one material: thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) foam. However it wasn’t durable enough, so the designers added a second material, and made the upper from recycled polyester. This is the shoe we see today. The sole is made from a generous wedge of durable nitrogen-infused, TPU-based foam called Infiniride. It gives a nice amount…

1 CHANGE PICTURE Big Sur comes with 40 new desktop wallpapers, including different phases as they change during the day. To choose one, go to System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop Pictures and make your selection. 2 ADD AN ACCENT COLOUR To change the color of buttons and sidebar glyphs in apps, go to System Preferences > General and choose a colour from the Accent menu. Multicolor leaves apps at the developer’s default colours. 3 CHANGE THE SIDEBAR Big Sur’s full-height sidebars in windows allow for more or bigger icons. To add more, go to Finder > Prefs > Sidebar. To make them bigger, it’s System Prefs > General > Sidebar icon size and small, medium or large.…

Now that Photos allows you to edit videos, and Big Sur expands that to allow cropping and filters, you might be wondering why you should bother with iMovie. But iMovie allows you to do a great deal more than just crop, trim, and add filters. For example, iMovie has 29 themes that make it really easy to turn your photos and movies into Hollywood–style trailers. It also allows you to add transitions and fades to your videos, as well as apply picture–in–picture, green screen effects, and speed up or slow down clips. iMovie also allows you to apply image stabilization to shaky clips, add Ken Burns–style effects to still images, adjust the color, and apply lots of different audio and video effects to clips. iMovie is well integrated with Photos,…

Messages is finally on a par with its iOS counterpart, and with other messaging apps on the Mac. You can now pin up to nine messages to the top of the messages list, reply inline to specific messages in a group conversation, “mention” participants in a group conversation, and choose its photo. GIFs and Memoji stickers come to the Mac and you can also create and edit Memojis in Big Sur Messages. When you first begin a conversation with someone new, you can choose whether to share your name and photo, or you can use a Memoji image or monogram instead. If you’re a fan of message effects in iOS, like fireworks and balloons, you’ll be pleased to see those are now in the Mac version too. And if you…

1 FINDING THE CONTROL PANEL Microsoft would prefer you use Settings, so the Control Panel is a little buried in the Start menu. You can find it by clicking Start, and scrolling down to the Windows System folder. To save all of the scrolling, you can also just click the Start button and start to type “control panel” to perform a search for it – you just need to click the link that appears at the top of list of results. 2 SEARCH FOR SETTINGS There are a huge number of options in the Control Panel, and it can be difficult to remember where you should look for something – this is where the search function comes in. The Control Panel functions much like a folder within Explorer, so you…

It is said that if an optimist sees a glass is half full and a pessimist sees it as half empty, then an engineer will tell you that the glass is twice as large as it needs to be. We are reminded of this old adage when we asked some of the best engineers of the British hi-fi industry whether or not there is a distinctly British sound. “Accurate, faithful and true,” says Nick Clarke, director of engineering at Arcam, when we ask him about a British sound. “I don’t associate it with a sound as such, the equipment should get out of the way of the music. If it doesn’t, it hasn’t been designed correctly,” he adds. “Understated, genuine and faithful reproduction throughout the entire bandwidth,” says Craig Milnes,…

Woodlands and forests are excellent environments to explore with a camera. From the small details we can find at ground level, to the towering effect of shooting up with a wide-angle lens, there are tremendous possibilities for dramatic shots. A wonderful time to shoot in a forest is sunrise or sunset, where we can capture the low angle of the light raking through the jumble of tree trunks and leaves. There are of course a number of specific challenges to correctly exposing and framing these complex locations. There is a huge exposure gradient between the shadows and highlights, especially when shooting out of the trees into an open environment beyond. This makes it tricky to hold detail at the extremes of the tonal range. Without the sun visible in the…

The Tallywhacker A loud ceiling-mounted doorstop spring for noisy neighbours. $TBC | redd.it/nrmh9h The Tallywhacker is one of the more ridiculous tech inventions we’ve seen in a while. This creation was added to the Arduino Reddit board by u/ MealsWheeled as a passive-aggressive reminder to his upstairs neighbour that their building’s floor doesn’t have enough acoustic insulation, so it can be pretty loud at times. The voice activated contraption connects into Google’s smart home network and uses an arm to flick one of those coiled door stoppers that wobbles around loudly after being sprung. Cool. Joto smart whiteboard This artistic analog Kickstarter is finally out. £399 | joto.rocks/ Sometimes in Ridiculous Tech we like to cover out-there contraptions that are actually pretty cool, and the Joto’s ability to give you…